Experts › Fitness & heart › Brad Stanfield

Fitness & heartGuideline-firstEvidence: strong

Brad Stanfield

MBChB (University of Auckland, 2016) · Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners (2024) · GP in New Zealand · lead author of the RAPA-EX-01 rapamycin trial (2026) · founder of MicroVitamin

Follow the best current evidence and guidelines, spend your effort on exercise, blood pressure and cholesterol first, and treat most supplements with healthy doubt.

In short

Two 4 × 4 interval sessions a week plus brisk walks
Strength 2+ times a week, 10–15 reps
Creatine 5 g; omega-3 up to 1 g

Build my plan in Stanfield’s style

Words explained (9)

Zone 2: Steady cardio at a pace where you can still talk in full sentences, but not sing.
Intervals: Short hard efforts with easy recovery in between, such as 30 seconds fast, 90 seconds slow.
4 × 4: Four rounds of 4 minutes hard with 3 minutes easy in between. Also called Norwegian intervals.
Creatine: A well-studied supplement that supports strength and muscle.
Omega-3 (EPA, DHA): Healthy fats found mostly in oily fish such as salmon, herring and sardines.
Fibre: The part of plant foods you don't digest. It feeds healthy gut bacteria and keeps you full.
ApoB: A blood test that counts the particles carrying cholesterol. Linked to heart disease risk.
Rapamycin, metformin: Prescription drugs that some experts take hoping to slow ageing. Not proven for that, and never part of your plan.
NAD: A molecule cells use for energy. Supplements are sold to raise it, but evidence in people is limited.

At a glance

Strength 40%Easy cardio 30%Intervals 25%Mobility & stability 5%

Training focus: our estimate from what they recommend.

4 × 4 intervals twice a week

Signature habit

~1.2 g/kg ideal weight

Protein

Guideline-first

Training style

Strong

Overall evidence

Background

Brad Stanfield is a general practitioner in New Zealand. He qualified in medicine at the University of Auckland in 2016 and became a Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners in 2024.

He is best known for a YouTube channel, with over 300,000 subscribers, where he explains new research on ageing, exercise, diet and supplements in plain language, with references on his website. He also publishes a free, guideline-based health roadmap.

He runs his own clinical research. In 2026 he was lead author of RAPA-EX-01, a placebo-controlled trial of weekly rapamycin in 40 adults aged 65 to 85 doing a home exercise programme. Rapamycin did not help and, if anything, slightly blunted the gains, and he published that negative result.

He founded and owns MicroVitamin, a supplement company, which he keeps separate from his education site.

Known for

Evidence-focused longevity videos on YouTube
Testing rapamycin in a placebo-controlled trial, and advising against off-label use
Questioning the hype around Zone 2 training
A free guideline-based health roadmap

2016Graduated in medicine (MBChB) from the University of Auckland
2024Fellow of the Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners
2025Published his critique of the evidence for Zone 2 training
2026Lead author of the RAPA-EX-01 rapamycin and exercise trial

Core ideas

Start from guidelines and the best trials, and change advice when the evidence changes.
Exercise is the most powerful tool for healthy ageing; harder cardio and strength training give the most for the time spent.
Blood pressure and cholesterol are the big, measurable risks: check them and treat them early.
Most supplements are unproven; a few have reasonable evidence, and even those come after the basics.

The protocol

Stanfield publishes a detailed roadmap of what he recommends rather than a diary of his own day, so we show his recommendations.

Training

Cardio: 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity a week. His template: two interval sessions and three brisk 30-minute walks.Strong evidence
Intervals: 4 rounds of 4 minutes hard and 3 minutes easy, after a 10-minute warm-up, twice a week and never on consecutive days.Strong evidence
Strength at least twice a week (4–5 if you can): 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps per exercise, stopping 1–2 reps short of failure, about 2 minutes' rest, with pushing, pulling and compound lifts.Strong evidence
Add power training as you age: heavier weights moved quickly.Some evidence
Zone 2 only if you have time beyond your vigorous minutes; he argues the evidence favours harder cardio for fitness.Note

Go deeper: Strength (Brad Schoenfeld) · Heart & fitness (Benjamin Levine, Martin Gibala) · Mobility & balance (Mike Fitch, Jules Mitchell)

Eating

Protein about 1.2 g per kg of ideal body weight a day (check with your doctor if you have kidney disease).Some evidence
Favour plant protein over red meat and dairy.Some evidence
Salt (sodium) under 1,500 mg a day, water as the main drink, few sugary drinks including juice.Strong evidence
Two to three cups of coffee at most, early in the day.Personal habit

Go deeper: Eating (Tim Spector, Chris van Tulleken)

Supplements

Creatine monohydrate 5 g a day.Strong evidence
Omega-3 (EPA and DHA) up to about 1 g a day; higher doses are linked to a higher risk of atrial fibrillation.Some evidence
Psyllium husk fibre, building up to about 5 g a day.Some evidence
A low-dose multivitamin and mineral.Some evidence
Trimethylglycine (TMG), hyaluronic acid, GlyNAC from 45, and a low-dose melatonin formula: on his personal list, with early evidence.Personal habit

Sleep & recovery

7–9 hours, a regular schedule and about 30 minutes of morning daylight.Some evidence
Bedroom at about 18–20 °C and dark; no hard exercise in the 2 hours before bed; alcohol stops 4–6 hours before bed, ideally altogether.Personal habit

Go deeper: Sleep (Matthew Walker, Colleen Carney)

Health checks

Home blood pressure every 2–4 weeks with an upper-arm cuff: below 120/80 under 65, below 130/80 from 65.Doctor only
Cholesterol: low ApoB and LDL targets, and one Lp(a) test in life; lifestyle first, then medication with your doctor.Doctor only
Cancer screening and bone scans on the standard guideline schedule.Doctor only

Strong evidence = trials or large studies · Some evidence = smaller or observational studies · Personal habit = their own choice, little evidence · Doctor only = prescription or blood-test dosing, never in your plan.

Stanfield’s style in your plan

Choose “Follow one expert” and we keep this balance of training and the methods above, then fit them to your age, your available time and your health screen.

What goes into your plan

Two 4 × 4 interval sessions a week and brisk walks on other days
Strength at least twice a week, 2–3 sets of 10–15 reps
Protein about 1.2 g per kg, more of it from plants
Creatine 5 g, omega-3 up to 1 g and psyllium fibre
His sleep habits, and checking your blood pressure at home

What we leave out, and why

TMG, hyaluronic acid, GlyNAC and melatonin formulas: early evidence, and some are sold by his company
Cholesterol targets and medication, cancer screening and skin prescriptions: topics for your doctor, not plan steps

Build my plan in Stanfield’s style Compare with other experts

The research behind it

Rapamycin and exercise in older adults (RAPA-EX-01)

In 40 sedentary adults aged 65–85 doing 13 weeks of home exercise, weekly rapamycin gave no benefit over placebo; gains trended smaller with the drug and side effects were more common.

Stanfield et al., Journal of Cachexia, Sarcopenia and Muscle, 2026

Omega-3 in the VITAL trial

In about 26,000 adults, 840 mg a day of marine omega-3 did not lower the overall rate of major heart events or cancer over about 5 years. Stanfield's suggested dose sits close to this.

Manson et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 2019

Honest about weak spots

He sells supplements through his own company, MicroVitamin, alongside his supplement reviews. His site says he discloses this.
Several items on his personal list (TMG, hyaluronic acid, GlyNAC, a melatonin formula) rest on small or early studies.
His cholesterol targets are stricter than general guidelines for people without heart disease, and his own page gives slightly different ApoB figures in different places.

Where experts disagree

Zone 2: Stanfield says the evidence favours harder cardio for fitness and adds Zone 2 only if time allows; Attia and Galpin give easy Zone 2 work a central role.
Protein: Stanfield suggests about 1.2 g per kg of ideal body weight and favours plant protein; Lyon and Attia go up to about 2.2 g per kg.

Sources

Last reviewed October 2026. Spotted an error? Tell us at hello@lifelongmethod.com and we’ll correct it.

Compare Brad Stanfield with…

Peter Attia Andrew Huberman Andy Galpin Gabrielle Lyon Rhonda Patrick Layne Norton Stacy Sims Mary Claire Haver Rangan Chatterjee Kelly & Juliet Starrett Bryan Johnson Gary Brecka Mark Hyman Vonda Wright Mike Israetel Jason Fung